5 Oct 2008

Council wants pedestrian bridge over Auckland motorway

3:57 pm on 5 October 2008

A pedestrian bridge may be built over an Auckland motorway after cameras captured about 30 people running across its lanes every day.

The Waitakere City Council has been pressing for the bridge since a 12-year-old boy died on the northwestern motorway in 2004.

Councillor Linda Cooper says the fear has always been of another fatality, because people of all ages, including families with pushchairs, use the shortcut.

She says the New Zealand Transport Agency will announce its decision soon on whether to help fund the bridge.

Ms Cooper says there is greater urgency because people won't be able to walk easily to the Westgate shopping mall, while work to extend State Highway 18 is carried out.